"Where are you going?" asked Branchkit, hopping after Ripplekit.
"Nowhere."
"Then why can't I come?"
"You're not old enough yet. I'm just going out to go get some leaves."
Branchkit yearned to follow him, but decided against it. After a quick huff, she turned around.
A glint in her eye, she waited until Ripplekit was out of view, and then followed his footprints in the snow. Shivering, she pushed on until she caught up with him. He was talking to a cat with a golden pelt. "Who are you, exactly?" She whispered under her breath.
Her ears pricked. "Braaaaanchkit!"
Her mom was looking for her. Branchkit rolled around in the snow desperately, trying to mask Ripplekit's scent. "Phew." she sighed, and hoping that no one would be able to trace Ripplekit now, she blushed slightly.
Looking after the white and brown tabby, she ran to the camp.
"Where were you?" asked Phoenixwing, worried.
"I just wanted to roll around in the snow!" Branchkit said cheerily. "It's so fluffy!"
Phoenixwing said nothing, but sniffed her coat. "Hmm... there's something you're not telling me, isn't there."
"No! I swear!"
Phoenixwing's nostrils dilated, but she could find no problem with her kit. "Oh well. I can't smell anything."
She brought Branchkit inside, picking her up by the scruff. The two moon old kit looked up at her mother with a winning smile.
"Did you hear?" asked Petaldust, coming into the camp to talk to her old apprentice.
"Hear what?"
"Lightningstrike's been hurt on yet another border skirmish with RainClan! Cloudpaw was killed!"
"No way!" she pricked up her ears. "He'll be okay, right? And Cloudpaw... oh, Cloudpaw..."
Petaldust bit her lip. "Of... course he will. I'm sure... that Cloudpaw walks with our warrior ancestors as well."
Moonstar's wails of grief filled the camp as night fell. "What do you mean, infected!"
Swallowfern tried to calm her down. "It's okay, I'm doing everything I can." she said soothingly.
Moonstar looked unimpressed.
Branchkit and Starkit went to the medicine cat den to watch, Ripplekit following behind. Branchkit immediately saw him and ran up to him, purring. "Hey, Ripplekit? Where have you been?"
"Collecting... bedding! For the elders."
Branchkit's eyes were wide with admiration. "You're so caring. I would never in a million years spend all day attending to grumpy old Clawpelt or Trunkthorn."
"Trunkthorn's pretty nice, actually. You shouldn't be that way about them. And Clawpelt isn't an elder, he's our DEPUTY."
"Same thing."
The three kits walked into the medicine cat den together, and their mouths dropped wide open.
Phoenixwing, being an observant mother, came over and herded the kits away. The bloody, unmoving form of the once proud warrior stood limp and silent.
Eyes filled with tears, Phoenixwing returned to the nursery with the kits. The whole clan felt like a tree at leaffall, shedding its leaves and glory. All that remained of the once-great clan was a giant stick.
The feather on Phoenixwing's ear caressed it. She felt tired, old, and desolate. The next morning, she watched with her kits as the body of the greatest warrior she'd ever known was carried out of camp.
At the same time, Nightsky looked down at the lonely, broken body of the kit she had raised as her own. "It-it-it was only his first battle!"
Phoenixwing pressed against her. "It'll be okay."
Nightsky sniffled. "Well, you and Shadowstorm better take good care of your kits, then."
"Shadowstorm? She can't be pregnant! She's way too old for-"
"I'm right here." purred Shadowstorm.
Phoenixwing felt immediately guilty. "I-I uh-"
"No need to apologize, you're right, but this clan needs new kits. It'll be okay."
Shadowstorm rubbed her swollen belly.
"Who's the father?" Phoenixwing asked, eager to change the conversation.
"Sandclaw."
Phoenixwing nodded in approval. Shadowstorm's old mate had been Wolfheart himself, who had fathered their kits, now Growlclaw and Ivywhisker.
Ripplekit, as usual, popped out of nowhere. However, this time, Ripplekit could definitely smell the scent of something on him. He hadn't masked whatever activity he had done last time quite as well as before, unfortunately for him.
Phoenixwing remembered Bluewing's words, "Innocent until proven guilty."
She would prove him guilty.
She was tired of living on that empty stick of a clan, especially when it was based on lies.
Branchkit went into a coughing fit, and Phoenixwing's heart stopped cold.
"Are you okay?"
Branchkit shook her head. Her coughing became more and more violent. How could Phoenixwing have ignored the signs for so long? The emotions that had been welling up inside her for so long burst out, smothering her in pure, utter heartbreak as she rushed her kit to the medicine cat den.
"Please, please, please help her..."
Branchkit had greencough.
